Issues in Contemporary Dance - Kosstrin

Dive into important aesthetic, social, and compositional issues in contemporary dance. This seminar will focus on changing models of making work in the dance field. We will discuss how the contemporary climate affects performance work, as well as social and gender issues in contemporary choreography. The course will draw upon the work and experience of artists at the Festival and also take a longer view of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In class we will view video, complete some readings, and engage in lively discussion. There is no outside work for this course and no previous experience is required. Bring your questions and your excitement for delving into issues in contemporary dance.

Hannah Kosstrin Ph.D. is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Reed College where she teaches courses in dance studies, Labanotation, and contemporary technique. She is situated at the intersection of dance, Jewish, and gender studies, and researches questions of politics and identity in Anna Sokolow’s choreography. Her articles appear in The International Journal of Screendance and Art Criticism, with work forthcoming in Dance Research Journal and Dance on its Own Terms: Histories and Methodologies edited by Karen Eliot and Melanie Bales. Before she came to Reed, Hannah taught dance and dance studies in Boston and central Ohio. She performed and presented choreography with, and wrote publicity for, Columbus Movement Movement (cm2), an organization that supported independent dance artists in Columbus, OH, that was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2007. Hannah is Treasurer-Elect for the Congress on Research in Dance, and she serves on the Dance Notation Bureau Professional Advisory Committee. Hannah holds a Ph.D. in Dance Studies from The Ohio State University with a minor in women’s history.